In a major effort to push through health care reform that House members say will be fair to all lawmakers, Congress will now ask the poorest Americans to help pay for overhauling the health care system through an income tax increase on all families and individuals living below the federal poverty level.

Philip Maddocks

In a major effort to push through health care reform that House members say will be fair to all lawmakers, Congress will now ask the poorest Americans to help pay for overhauling the health care system through an income tax increase on all families and individuals living below the federal poverty level.

After months of setbacks and uncertainty, House members were jubilant as they introduced their proposal to achieve a goal of universal political cover that had eluded them for the last six months as they fretted with one another over the potentially catastrophic career effects of pushing forward with health care reform.

"This is indeed a happy day for lawmakers, for today we are introducing historic and transformative legislation that will benefit all politicians seeking the backing of the rich and powerful in this country. We like to call it a health insurance act for the great incumbent class of America," said one House leader.

Others hailed the House bill as a product of "unprecedented cooperation" by three House committees and numerous special interest groups all looking out for the welfare of one another and their rich friends. And most saw it as a vast improvement over an earlier House proposal to tax the country’s wealthiest households.

Speaking from the House gymnasium, one lawmaker said, "Don’t be fooled by folks trying to scare you by saying we have to change the culture of Washington to get things done. We have no choice but to look out for ourselves, because if we don’t, then nothing gets done – and that’s not why we came here, to not do anything for ourselves. I think the American people understand that. I think that’s what they expect from us. And I think it’s only fair to them that each and everyone of us also expect the same thing from ourselves."

Though the surtax on the nation’s poorest households would only raise a fraction of the estimated $1 trillion needed over the next 10 years to pay for the House’s new health care legislation, lawmakers yesterday insisted the proposed surtax was the "best way" to raise money for the health care overhaul and still remain in the good graces of the nation’s wealthiest 1.2 percent.

"I really do not understand the politics of trying to sell health care reform, which is supposed to be for the benefit of those Americans who do not have affordable or any health insurance, and saying it should also be paid for by people who already enjoy the best health care money can buy because they can afford it," said one congressman. "If it’s worth doing, and I think it is, then the poor should be willing to pay for it."

Republicans, who have pummeled the Democrats over the $787 billion economic stimulus and typically pounce at word of any proposed tax increase, voiced support for surtaxing the poorest households, though they did hold out the possibility that the additional tax on low-income people could rise significantly in 2013 if county’s wealthiest do not achieve specified earnings from their work and investments.

"In the middle of a serious recession, with unemployment nearing double digits, the first thing we need is a tax increase on the poor, because the poor have to start taking responsibility for their actions," said one minority leader.

"It’s only fair," he added. "If no one was poor, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in."

House and Senate leaders suggested that the tax-raising provisions on low-income households, one of the most politically harmonious parts of the House bill, made it more likely bills in both chambers would be ready for floor votes before lawmakers depart for the August summer recess.

House Democrats, especially more junior members elected in 2006 and 2008 from Republican-leaning districts, are eager to vote for a big tax increase if it is likely to fall on the poor.

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, said members of his committee had made incredible progress in their effort to forge a bipartisan proposal since the House introduced the idea of a surtax on the poor to help pay for the health care system overhaul. House Democrats monitoring the negotiations in the Finance Committee suggested that a deal between Mr. Baucus and the senior Republican on the panel, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, could yield a plan to pay for the bill that would also incorporate the need for the income surtax.

Mr. Grassley, in an interview on MSNBC, endorsed the idea of a so-called pauper’s tax. "Definitely that’s on the table," he said.

One lawmaker summed up the bipartisan effort by saying, "It just shows what can be done when elected officials put aside their differences and work for their own common good."

Philip Maddocks can be reached at pmaddoc@cnc.com.

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